gonzo914 wrote:
But you bring up a good point. Two hundred dollars is not enough. Anyone who would pay $200 a year for a Gold membership would pay $400 a year. Look upon it as a way to weed out the insincere and the uncommitted riff-raff.
... and the forum might end up with at least 2 people in it... if that many.
But you bring up a good point. Two hundred dollars is not enough. Anyone who would pay $200 a year for a Gold membership would pay $400 a year. Look upon it as a way to weed out the insincere and the uncommitted riff-raff.
In that case we need to add an extra 'E' to the acronym, to express this extra level of exclusivity. Does it look silly with a third 'E'?
Also: you could use individual PayPal transactions for moderation. For $50 anyone can lock a thread. If different people disagree over moderation, you just have a bidding war, problem solved.
We can also develop a rating system based on how much money each poster makes by attracting new accounts. Then it's much simpler to decide who is "right" in any political dispute: the winner will obviously be whichever position generates the largest revenue stream.
Finally, we should pay close attention to public opinion and poll everyone to see if anyone has input on who should moderate. Those people are probably the best target demographics for our ambitious direct mail and phone marketing campaigns.
Caj
[Also also: we'll need venture capital, and a logo with at least three swooshes. Swooshes==profit.]
gonzo914 wrote:
But you bring up a good point. Two hundred dollars is not enough. Anyone who would pay $200 a year for a Gold membership would pay $400 a year. Look upon it as a way to weed out the insincere and the uncommitted riff-raff.
... and the forum might end up with at least 2 people in it... if that many.
And Dale would have $800 that he doesn't have now.
Maybe we should include access to the Personals forum in the Gold package. Anyone who would pay $400 a year for the Policonco forum probably needs access to the Personals forum very badly.
Crazy for the blue white and red
Crazy for the blue white and red
And yellow fringe
Crazy for the blue white red and yellow
fiddleronvermouth wrote:
... and the forum might end up with at least 2 people in it... if that many.
And Dale would have $800 that he doesn't have now.
No, fiddler is right. You'd need a price point that maximizes revenue.
$800 is fine and good, but not optimal. Obviously you want to do the right thing.
Maybe we should include access to the Personals forum in the Gold package. Anyone who would pay $400 a year for the Policonco forum probably needs access to the Personals forum very badly.
First, I thought we agreed on a snappier name. Second, what's the point of free personals if you only have two members? I can imagine the first date:
ALICE: So what do you do for fun? BOB: I mostly argue with this one fool online. ALICE: Oh, so do I! There's this one guy who drives me up the wall. BOB: We have so much in common!
No, no personals, but maybe you could diversify into auctions.
fiddleronvermouth wrote:People won't pay to participate in that forum. If you think they would, then ask yourself if you would have joined C&F if there was a fee involved.
I certainly would not pay a fee to participate in the Political/Rubber Room forum. However, if Dale asked for a monthly or annual fee to be a member of the other areas of the board, I would not hesitate to pay up.
While you can see that I have been a member for quite a while, I participate these days by posting only very infrequently. In fact, I have not posted in the Rubber Room for a good long while for good reasons. It's too easy to get sucked into heated debates that, predictably, will go nowhere except to more heat (without additional light) and ultimately to the lockup.
Having said all this, I would add that, just as a guy who fell in love with the sound of a whistle who stumbled across C&F, I have gotten a great deal out of the board. I want to thank Dale and if he wants to send a bill to a guy who mostly just lurks these days, I'll pay any reasonable amount for the privilege.
Caj, Gonzo, there is a problem with your plan...you aren't thinking big enough!
Multi Level Marketing Plan!! Where for every new member you enlist you get a commission. Then when they sign up another member you get a cut out of that. Just think about it. If everyone signs up enough members it could cover the cost of their own membership fees.
You could tie the percentages to the level of membership; basic plan gets you one percentage while a Gold or Platinum would result in a higher take...
Discussing politics is like having a conversation with the ex. You know that no matter what the subject....it could be as innocent as what you had to eat for lunch....you know that they are going to somehow work your past sins into the conversation
Who would have thought that a post of Mr. Shaw's pending retirement would result in a catastrophic planning that will propel Dale into the ranks of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs?!
Caj, we are just in the planning stages. I would agree that we want to maximize revenue, but only to the extent where that is consistent to maintaining a certain quality of membership. I mean, it's been free up to now, and look at what we've got.
You are misunderstanding the personals. That's a separate membership option, kind of like Showtime. I expect a lot of people would buy a personals membership, many more than would be interested in the Policocon forum. We're just giving anyone who pays for the policocon forum a free membership in the personals forum in hopes it encourages them to get out more. I think several of these people would behave much better if they got laid more. Or got laid period.
And I love the name. Let's go with it.
In summary -- We've got the Personals Forum, which will be our loss leader. We'll let it go cheaply to build up a membership base of horny, reprobate whistlers. We can probably afford to include it in some of our more expensive packages, such as . . . .
"Politics/Religion/Other Controversial Topics Online Limited Offer Gold Edition Exclusive" -- This package gives unlimited posting privileges in the Policocon forum, plus fee unlimited posts in the personals forum. As for price, let's not too hasty about cuttng it. I'd like to keep it high enough that one would pretty much have to have a real job to be able to afford it.
Let's also look at that Commercial Forum. I think there is the potential for a good revenue stream there. This needs to go at a premium rate. These folks are bidnessmen. It's deductible, and they can afford it.
Then there is the "Pray for Me" forum, or as I like to call it, the "I am blind and my dog is dead," forum. I think we should price this one based on tonnage.
Base membership, which i am recommending we call the "Pewter Package," would still be free and would include view privileges in all forums, plus posting priviliges in all but the premium channels.
What do you think? I think this is coming together pretty nicely. Dale should be proud of us. Let's get the basic product together, then we'll lay multi-level marketing on top of it, with us at the top of the pyramid, of course.
Last edited by gonzo914 on Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Crazy for the blue white and red
Crazy for the blue white and red
And yellow fringe
Crazy for the blue white red and yellow
peeplj wrote:It is very much like being a guest in Dale's house.
I don't know about that... If I were invited to Dale's house, say
for a dinner party, I'd know that it would be considered rude to
bring up politics. But, maybe that's just a Southern thing?
peeplj wrote:It is very much like being a guest in Dale's house.
I don't know about that... If I were invited to Dale's house, say
for a dinner party, I'd know that it would be considered rude to
bring up politics. But, maybe that's just a Southern thing?
That's where you and just two or three others wander off with your beers so as not to impose on the general population. The hydrangeas in the back yard are a good spot, especially if one or two want to take a smoke break. You blow off some political steam discreetly, and then you wander back to the party, sans politics.
Last edited by Nanohedron on Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"If you take music out of this world, you will have nothing but a ball of fire." - Balochi musician
gonzo914 wrote:
What do you think? I think this is coming together pretty nicely. Dale should be proud of us. Let's get the basic product together, then we'll lay multi-level marketing on top of it, with us at the top of the pyramid, of course.
Do we have an option of "Dish"???? I really hate cable....
oh - wait - I just thought of something!
We need "parental" control blockers!!! You could give us the option to block, I mean REALLY block certain posters from being seen by us.
Or we could block certain words, such as "banjo" or "bodhran"!!!
